If you haven't heard, there is something of a board game renaissance happening these days, growing in community size and diversity. I've been a tabletop rpg gamer for some time and I've done just about everything (D&D, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, GURPs, etc.) and run several campaigns as a DM myself. However, in the last year I've started to get more interested in board games as well. So I'm creating this topic in case anyone else wants to talk about board games, card games, tabletop rpgs, conventions, community, etc. Post here about a game (or game system) you recommend, or do NOT recommend. Or just to chat about anything related to the topic.

So to start off, I'd like to recommend a game I think almost everyone will enjoy: Bang! The Dice Game. I have played this spaghetti western themed shoot out game with non-gamers, hardened gamers, and everyone in between - and it always goes over well with any party. If you want an action party game that is easy to teach, quick, but with enough variety to keep more advanced gamers engaged, you should pick it up.

Kapit - I just played Betrayal the other weekend at a friend's birthday. His girlfriend was the betrayer and her dragon deep fried my character in an elevator. The chaos of that game is too much fun, even if they could have been more clear in the directions in some cases. (I do want to get the expansion soon!)

That is my problem too, in terms of having so many games I'd like to try, but little time with work and grad school. I do want to check out the X-wing miniatures game, and it's on my ever expanding list.

Codenames is good, and I picked up Codenames Pictures recently (though haven't had a chance to play). I got a good game from the same designer (Vlaada Chvátil) recently called Tash-Kalar. It's an abstract-y game with a great theme of summoning monsters to destroy your opponents pieces, although it doesn't work in party settings like Codenames does.

My personal favorite games I've encountered thus far have been The Resistance (a deduction spy game that is better than One Night Werewolf IMO), and Onitama (a kung fu themed abstract game).

Trying to describe the game is ... challenging. But once you're playing it through once or twice then it all clicks. Essentially, you pit a well-informed minority against an uninformed majority. It works bests with a minimum of 7 players and gets really great with larger groups of 11 or more.

This is a card game that duplicates Russian Roulette with the addition of using cards in your hand to force the other players to take extra pulls on the trigger (draws from the deck). You have DEFUSE cards in your hand, hopefully, so that when you draw an 'Exploding Kitten' card you will survive the draw. Then you get to put the Exploding card back into the deck at a location of your choice. You can also steal cards from other players, etc. And all the art is done by some very famous webcomic guy -- they're hysterical to look at.

I haven't played tabletop RPG's since I was in college (back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth -- pterodactyl screech) but I do play on MUDS which are like text-based versions of RPGs. I currently am a staff member on a mud named 'Waterdeep' which you can play online using a webclient here: https://client.waterdeep.info/ -- but you should really try using a mud 'client' like mushclient: http://www.gammon.com.au/mushclient/mushclient.htm

Bear in mind -- the MUDs are more like larger, multi-player versions of Zork, with better combat. They're not for everyone, but there's a lot of them still kicking. And they come in a lot of various themes as well: including Space Operas which means, you guessed it -- Star Wars themed muds!

And the vast majority of them are free to play, and can even be played on your phone.

Trying to describe the game is ... challenging. But once you're playing it through once or twice then it all clicks. Essentially, you pit a well-informed minority against an uninformed majority. It works bests with a minimum of 7 players and gets really great with larger groups of 11 or more.

This is a card game that duplicates Russian Roulette with the addition of using cards in your hand to force the other players to take extra pulls on the trigger (draws from the deck). You have DEFUSE cards in your hand, hopefully, so that when you draw an 'Exploding Kitten' card you will survive the draw. Then you get to put the Exploding card back into the deck at a location of your choice. You can also steal cards from other players, etc. And all the art is done by some very famous webcomic guy -- they're hysterical to look at.

Cool, Torog, there is the original Bang! and then Bang! the Dice Game. The former has more components and longer playtime, the latter is more streamlined and more fun (IMHO). There's a Walking Dead version of Bang! the Dice Game too, but haven't picked it up (never really got into that series).

I do have Werewolves of Miller's of Miller's Hollow: The Pact (which has the expansions included) but haven't played it yet. I got on a bit of a board game buying spree awhile back and am in "backlog" mode to actually play them all. The rulebook shows a ton of roles, especially compared to games like One Night Werewolf. I have seen Exploding Kittens played and it looked pretty fun. By the artist that does The Oatmeal, I think.

I'll check out those MUDs links. Some of that looks somewhat familiar to me, hm.

Has anyone checked out Tabletopia? I'm hoping this endeavor will pan out - it is attempting to be the Netflix of board games. I subbed for the free account to try it out. They have alot of Stonemaier games, like Scythe.

Has anyone checked out Tabletopia? I'm hoping this endeavor will pan out - it is attempting to be the Netflix of board games. I subbed for the free account to try it out. They have alot of Stonemaier games, like Scythe.

Checking it out now -- looks interesting!
RE: tabletop gaming -- have you ever looked at roll20? https://roll20.net/ -- basically, you can run a traditional tabletop rpg online. TBH, I've never used it.

Lately my family and I have been playing (don't laugh) Texas No Holdem Poker! You can get a very decent set of poker chips for like 30 bucks at Costco, and you can play for money. So we will give every player a set number of chips for some token amount of money -- $5. But if 8 people play at a family gathering, the winner gets $30, and second place gets $10. Or whatever you want your "buy-in" to be. Some people even go so far as to have custom chips made up. I know it might seem tawdry to suggest putting money at stake (I'm a tawdry sort of guy) -- but sometimes putting even a very small amount of money into play makes the game more exciting. To wit: I would also recommend 'Left, Right, Center' if you've never played. This game can be gotten in convenience stores for almost nothing, it's just three special dice: https://www.amazon.com/LCR-Center-Right ... B000F9YDKY

In order to play, everyone sits at a table and puts three dollar bills in front of them. Play goes around the tables, with each person rolling a die for each dollar they still have. Each die has three dots ("safe") and an "L", "R" and "C" ("left", "right" and "center"). If you roll a "dot" then you can keep that dollar. If you roll "C" then you put the dollar into the center of the table. "L" means you shift your dollar to the person on your left, same for "right".

Over time, the dollars slowly pile up in the center of the table. The last person who has a dollar in front of them wins all the money.

This is a good game even for kids because if you lose all your dollars, the remaining dollars do tend to shift left and right, and a person could easily find themselves back in the game. And no one's so hard up that they don't have three dollars. Also, the learning curve is non-existent for groups of, eh, older adults who don't have any interest in 'learning' how to play something.